Deforestation in the Aftermath of Warfare: A Spatial TSCS Analysis

• In Event: Poster Session: International Security I

Abstract

The environment can be a cause as well as an effect of warfare. However, the environmental effect of warfare has been less well studied, while previous studies have clarified that environmental conditions are significantly related with the onset of warfare such as natural resources, rainfall amount, and global warming. Reuveny, Mihalache-O’Keef, and Li (2010), the first large-N study regarding “environment as the effect of warfare,” find that armed conflicts contribute to deforestation. Although these findings are important, their analysis ignores a spatial relationship with the environment in neighboring countries. This ignorance potentially misspecifies the causal impacts of warfare. Thus, our study constructs a new data set and reanalyzes Reuveny, Mihalache-O’Keef, and Li (2010) model by employing a spatial time-series—cross-sectional regression analysis.

Author

• Yuta Kamahara, Yokohama National University